The situation, despite what the dispassionate observer might think, is according to the Israeli president very complicated. He affirms that Israel wants peace above all and the faults always lie with the Palestinians.(more…)

We are either at the end of history, or at the breaking light of profound cultural change. We are at the confluence of two major and related crises: the global environment and the global economy.(more…)

They have names, as do Israelis. A simple new report recording of the known dead is not good enough. Allowing for cultural sensitivities some recognition of the dead should be made. Perhaps the script would include who they were, their age, and how they were killed.(more…)

As MP Gerald Kaufmann spoke on the Gaza Massacre there appears to be few members of the House of Commons in the chamber. Let us add to the numbers, via You Tube:

Source: Informed Comment.

Resonant concluding sentences:

It is time for our Government to make clear to the Israeli Government that their conduct and policies are unacceptable, and to impose a total arms ban on Israel. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the Israelis’ real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply war criminals; they are fools.

Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza city and unleashed their heaviest shelling of its crowded neighbourhoods in three weeks of war, stepping up pressure on Hamas as the Islamist group weighed a ceasefire.(more…)

You have to wonder why the Israelis have set their military forces on a murderous rampage in Gaza. They have excuses, which perhaps need to be carefully considered, but there is a question: Is there practical alternative to this course? And why is such an alternative not followed?(more…)

So what are Israeli leaders seeking to prove by their ‘slaughter” of the Palestinians in Gaza. Is it the updated version of Cowboys and Indians, as Chris Floyd suggesting that violence and dispossession works.(more…)